


Love Potions and Legalities

by Melusine11



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Accidental Bonding, Accidental Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, Dirty Talk, F/M, Gratuitous Smut, Grumpy Ben Solo, Leia doesn't have time for this, Love Potion/Spell, Magic, Masturbation, Mostly making up the magic as we go, Shower Sex, Smut, Tea, Topping from the Bottom, Train Sex, Warlock Ben, Wildly Amused Rey, Witch Rey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2020-02-10 17:23:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18664948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melusine11/pseuds/Melusine11
Summary: When Kylo Ren, best Law Enforcement Warlock on Leia Organa-Solo's team, is tasked with apprehending a girl, untrained, but blatantly brewing and selling illegal love potions, he's less than enthused, the task beneath his station. What he expects and what he gets are two wildly different things when he finally breezes into Rey's shop in the desert town of Niima, Jakku.





	1. Raido

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ohwise1ne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohwise1ne/gifts).



His thumb traces the tiny silver rune on her hip as he moves. A gasp, a moan, her legs slide from his sweat-slicked skin with a hard thrust. Without breaking pace, he reaches back, large palm encasing her calf and he lifts it until it’s over his shoulder. The hand at her hip shifts, pressing her leg outward onto the mattress, opening her up to him, letting him angle deeper.

“Oh!” she gasps, her body moving in tandem with his, hands traveling restlessly from the sheets to her hair, her incredible tits, his own chest, wrapping around his biceps where her nails dig into his skin. 

The headboard of her small bed hits the wall with every thrust. It’s a sweet symphony of sound, her moans mingling with his groans, flesh on flesh, heavy breaths and they rhythmic pounding of wood meeting wood mixed with the quiet squeaking of straining springs.

“Kylo.” Sweet Circe he loves the way she says his name. He grins down at her, taking in the flush of her cheeks, how dark her eyes are, her kiss reddened lips. 

“What is it?” he asks, turning his head and pressing his lips to her leg, a needy whine escapes her and he bites gently against her skin as he chuckles darkly. “Do you want to cum, Rey? Is that it?”

Her grip on him grows tighter, both her cunt and hands. “Yes,” she practically sobs, “Wanna cum, please, oh, fuck, Kylo I just need-” he grazes his thumb against her clit, rubbing down to where his cock plunges into her, gathering up the copious wetness leaking from her core before swiping the digit back up and pressing into her clit once more, drawing senseless patterns over the sensitive nub until she shatters around him, screaming her release to the ceiling as she shudders and drags him down with her.

“Fuck, Rey, _fuck_ ,” he bites out, feeling her sweet cunt ripple and pulse around his cock. He manages a few more erratic thrusts into her before pulling out and spilling all over her stomach.

Her chest is heaving with gasping breaths as he releases her leg, lets it slip down off of his shoulder to land on the mattress with a gentle _thump_. He collapses forward onto his hands, breathing just as harshly as he stares into her smiling gaze. She shifts beneath him, arms stretching up above her head before disappearing between them.

“Rey,” he growls, watching her grin as she takes her fingers, now messy with his spend, into her mouth and licks them clean.

“Kylo,” she answers when she’s done. He doesn’t respond, instead, he shakes his head and falls to the side of her. She rolls into his side and exhales against his neck, his hand lazily falls over her hip, fingers stretching back to dance over her ass cheek. He counts to thirty-three and then she’s rolling away from him, standing from the bed to walk into the bathroom.

“I’m going to shower,” she calls over her shoulder. She turns back in the doorway, index finger scooping his lingering seed from her bellybutton. “You can join me if you want,” she offers, tongue darting out and swiping up the mess there with a wicked grin.

He lays on his back staring at the ceiling for several breaths before rolling from the bed and following her. Soon. _Soon,_ he tells himself. 

* * *

_Two weeks ago_.

“This is a little beneath me, isn’t it?” Kylo Ren, third generation warlock, and high ranking enforcement officer asks, flipping the folder closed and tossing it down onto the desk that separates him and his boss. 

Leia Organa-Solo leans back in her chair and crosses her arms over her chest, taking in her son. They are on the clock, so it’s all business here and now, but she doesn’t try to quell the tender smile that makes its way onto her face.

“A little, but with all the fallout from Snoke, we’re a bit short staffed.” Across from her, Kylo snorts. “Ben,” she warns, and her son rolls his eyes but settles. Use of his true name, and not his chosen warlock name is deliberate, it’s enough to let him know how serious she is. “You’re good at blending in, and this is a delicate matter. I need the best, and you’re it.”

She ignores the way her son preens under her praise and reaches for the folder. “Finn found her by accident, out in Niima, Jakku-”

“Niima? Who the fuck lives out in that hellhole?” 

Leia clears her throat. “It’s where we had banished Unkar Plutt, no one has checked on him for the last half a century. He’s been quiet, hadn’t been up to anything nefarious, but clearly, he found an apprentice.”

“Great,” Kylo groans, scrubbing his hands over his face and up into his hair, “how did he manage that?”

“Hard to say, that’s part of what I want you to find out. Finn didn’t find any trace of him when he passed through, but his apprentice, Rey is there, running a little potions shop.”

“This just keeps getting better and better.”

Leia smiles, “Doesn’t it? Unkar wasn’t great at potions, and I can’t imagine she’s been taught well, which is concerning, of course, but she’s also brewing and selling love potions.” Kylo hisses in a breath through his teeth and Leia nods, “exactly, so I need you to go there, but be subtle, I know you’re capable of it, find a way to get her here. She’s clearly got aptitude, at least for potions, I want to know if she’s truly magically inclined and if she is she deserves to be able to have the choice of proper training.”

“And the matter of her brewing illegal love potions?” Kylo asks, frowning.

“Well, if she learned from Plutt, she’s not going to know any better, is she? We’ll think of something, but a severe punishment isn’t going to be one of them. She isn’t part of our coven, but Unkar was, we banished him, it’s our responsibility to take care of his potential mess.”

Kylo leans forward, pressing his palms to his knees and standing. “Sounds fun,” he drawls, taking the folder from Leia as she hands it over to him. “When do you want me back?”

“No rush, if you’ve gotten nowhere in a month, call me.”

“A month?” Kylo asks, sounding offended.

“I _don’t_ want you to rush this or potentially scare her off, so take your time, I’m sure I’ll see you back here before the month is out.”

* * *

The next week is spent prepping and packing for his month long trip. It’s evening when Kylo finally boards the train. It’s a sixteen hour trip from Naboo to Jakku, normally he’d travel by teleportation pad, but Jakku is a deliberate dead zone. No _true_ magic happens there. It’s a desert, where The Coven banishes their lawbreakers, after binding their magic, so they don’t keep the means for them to harness that power again anywhere close. Potion making among them is far less regulated, and more than once illicit Black Market types of activities and sales have been shut down here. He isn’t looking forward to the trip.

He sleeps, he reads and rereads the thin folder of information they had gathered about this _Rey_ ; he sleeps more, eats mediocre food and walks the length of the train cars to stretch his legs when he can’t sit still any longer.

They pull into Niima Station at sundown and Kylo disembarks, duffel bag slung over his shoulder. The air is dry as he breathes it in, and it’s hot, he’s already sweating and regretting keeping his leather jacket on.

He feels like he’s stepped back in time, or onto a movie set. He can see the edge of town from where he stands outside of the doors of the hilltop station. There’s a main street which is where he’s headed and a small spider webbing network of streets that stretch out from it as well as a few outlying homes in the distance.

As he walks along the craggy, unattended asphalt he half expects a sheriff to swagger up to him and challenge him to a duel. None of that happens, of course, and the few people around him are dressed in normal clothes, perfect for the staggering temperature and a far cry from what he prefers to wear. They scurry about beneath the hot desert sun, trying to reach their destination quickly.

There are a few cars are parked along Main Street, and Kylo hesitates before crossing, wondering how often cars fly through this sleepy almost outpost of a town. A blip on the endlessly stretching highway for the average person. 

He ambles up the steps of the only Bed and Breakfast in town. A narrow, yet tall building, painted grey with the door and window shutters painted turquoise. It’s called ‘The Outpost’, and until his job is done, it’s home. Ben frowns up at it, hating how apt it is before pushing inside and into the blessed cool air. He knows his mother probably has friends, _non-magical_ friends who would love this place. Mismatched wood paneling, a small portion of the wall behind the desk has hooks, filled with brass room keys. There’s an abnormally high number of lace doilies strewn haphazardly about nearly every surface. It’s stifling in its homey-ness - he hates it.

He checks in, gets his room key and makes his way up the rickety stairs to room number 4. There’s a small window unit air conditioner - he turns it up to high as he strips out of his jacket, throwing it onto the bed behind him. He’ll hang it up later, but for now, he’s too warm and basks in the frigid blast of air now pelting his torso.

Slipping his phone from his front pocket he sends a quick message to Leia, letting her know he has arrived. He’s still slightly miffed that he’s out here at all, this was easily something Finn could have handled when he circled back next month, but he can grudgingly admit he understands. He shucks the rest of his clothes and falls into bed.

He walks up hot. Lays in bed for as long as he can stand, then gets up to look out the window. His lip curls as his eyes scan the street below, _love potions_. He knew Plutt was a fool, but to find someone and teach them the art -it was disgusting. For more than a century they had been outlawed, after an unfortunate incident where one Warlock dosed his whole town. It ended with a bloodbath and any and all potions that fell under the category of love or lust being strictly forbidden. If caught brewing, selling, imbibing, or _giving_ them to someone; well, it wasn’t pretty. 

So his mother’s leniency over this matter is puzzling and has him wary. This Rey, whoever she was, was at a disadvantage, being trained by Plutt. Kylo shudders to think the knowledge he may have passed on to her. He was an ugly warlock, inside and out, with a penchant for curses that did horrific bodily harm if the subject he cast them on stopped obeying his will. If he didn’t know for certain that his magic had been bound twenty-five years ago when The Coven banished him, Kylo might worry about Rey, what compulsion he might have put on her, but it was impossible. She was willing.

He lingers in his room until he no longer feels sticky with sweat, and then ventures back out into the small town, sans jacket. The town is a weird mashup of the mundane and the still allowable magical, with a heavy tilt towards what might draw in a wayward tourist. He passes one small restaurant and three places that do readings, all on one block.

The building he needs though is right on the corner, with a small covered porch that looks in need of a fresh coat of paint. In fact, the whole exterior of the building looks to be in some state of disrepair, all save for the front door. A sturdy wooden door, that appears to be meticulously maintained, the glass window pane within it displaying the shop’s name and hours in what looks like hand painted lettering. ‘The Oasis’.

Kylo squints. He hates this town, and it’s ridiculously named places. 

A bell over the door jingles merrily when he enters, and a voice from somewhere in the back, obscured by a heavy black curtain calls that she’ll be right with him. He doesn’t know what he was expecting, but definitely not the British sounding tone that greets him, and when she finally emerges from the back he’s rendered mute by the sight of her.


	2. Wunjo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! Sorry for the lengthy delay on this chapter - the next update won't take nearly as long.
> 
> Thank you to RebelRebel for the beta read.

Her ‘customer service smile’ starts to slip as he doesn’t respond and he blinks. “What?” he asks, sounding startled.

This at least gets her to laugh a little and a real smile brightens her face. “I said, you’re new. How can I help you?”

“Ah, yes, that’s me. New. I am...new.”

She takes two steps towards him, still smiling. “You seem nervous. I promise you don’t need to be. Very confidential here.” He watches as she looks him up and down and then, “you don’t look like the sort that needs any sort of assistance, _sexually_ ,” she whispers that word and then carries on like he hasn’t just blanched at her, “but I don’t know what else could be making you so skittish.”

“I uh, no. No. I’m really great at the sex,” he blurts and then snaps his mouth shut as her eyes gleam. “No, wait–”

She’s laughing. “What’s your name?”

“Kylo. Kylo Ren.” He picks up one of the rune stones without looking at it, just so his hands can be busy.

“All right, Kylo ‘I’m great at sex’ Ren, if it isn’t any sort of potency potion, what are you after?” 

He rubs his thumb over the smooth stone and hums, face flushing in embarrassment. “I uh, there’s a rumor,” he winces. His mother is going to kill him when he submits his report.

“I’d imagine there’s all sorts of rumors. May I?” she asks, holding out her palm, wriggling her fingers. 

Kylo drops the stone into it with a nod. “Sure.”

She flips it until it shows the rune and hums. “I’d imagine it’s not just any old rumor that would summon _Kylo Ren_ to Niima.” Her smile is a wicked thing as she deposits the rune stone back into his hand, scooping its sister set off of the small table, then striding around the counter. 

“It’s not,” he finally manages to say, stepping up to the counter now, watching as she grapples with something beneath it. Then she tips her hand, the stones tumbling into a satin bag.

“That one too, if you don’t mind,” she says, holding the bag out. He lets the last one fall in and she pulls the strings to close it. “Here,” she slides it across the counter to him. 

He frowns, not remembering the last time anyone just _gave_ him anything, unprompted. “Why?” he asks, suspicious.

“Because it’s yours.” She pats the bag and then walks to the end of the counter, surveying him for a moment before hopping up to sit on in. “So, tell me.” Her hand waves in invitation and Kylo frowns. For years people have been deferring to him, _fearing_ him, and there’s no denying that this Rey knows him somehow. Has heard of him. He shouldn’t be surprised — nearly half of Niima’s population exists because of him. No doubt there’d been an influx in the population as Snoke’s remaining lackeys were rounded up and processed for binding. Still, to have someone acting so familiar with him is throwing him off.

“Tell you–” he begins and she smiles. His fingers reach out to stroke the satin of the bag. “Before I do,” he starts again, “can I ask you a question?”

“You can certainly ask,” she says with a shrug, crossing one leg over the other and he finally glances down at them for longer than a second. They’re long and impressively tan; he has the fleeting urge to reach out and _touch_ , but refrains.

When he glances back up at her she’s smiling again, and blushing just a little. He notices she has freckles. “You know who I am.”

“I hope that’s not your question,” she leans back, placing her hands down on the countertop, lounging like that. It presses her chest out just enough and he really shouldn’t be so distracted, but she’s a pretty thing and she keeps teasing him like he isn’t one of the most powerful warlocks out there.

He smiles a bit — he can play this game. “It’s not.” He crosses his arms and flexes, enjoying the attention she dotes on him. “Niima is a dead zone, magically speaking, but you know that already.”

“Still not a question.”

“How did you end up here?” he asks and she scowls.

“The most boring part of the story, but okay.” She shifts, uncrossing her legs and scooting closer to him on the counter. Her hands come around and grip the front edge of it and she bows over her knees a bit. “I was five, maybe six? When my parents passed through. They had been in Vegas, managed to win something.”

“So they came here?” he asks, baffled. No one willingly came here.

“Not done yet, am I?” she sneers. “So according to Plutt at least, they got talked into trying some sort of elixir, but with no magical affinity in their blood it was more of a hallucinogenic, and they got addicted and they left me with Plutt to keep me safe while they went off somewhere to find money to get more.”

He gapes like a fish. “They left you...with Unkar Plutt?”

“Questionable at best, right?” Her lips twist with a wry grin, “Probably more questionable that he followed through with it, and then taught me his trade.”

“Did Plutt...was he the reason your parents...?”

“Nah, some shady guy on the outskirts of town.” She lifts a shoulder and his face must convey some sort of shock at how nonplussed she is because she follows it up with, “it was over twenty years ago. I hardly remember them. And they were more concerned with chasing a high. As I got older I learned what kind of place Niima was — still is — and that _I_ was lucky to still be alive.” 

She slides from the counter and steps to him, nearly chest-to-chest. Her fingers walk slowly up his as she looks at him from beneath her lashes. “The man that killed my parents? I made sure he wasn’t so lucky as I.” It’s a purr, nearly, and Ben gulps, shifts his stance just slightly because his pants are suddenly feeling a bit tight.

 _Who is this girl?_ He reaches up, grabbing her hand tightly in his own. It dwarfs hers, and he rolls his jaw, uncomfortable with how off-balance she’s made him so quickly.

“No one touches me without suffering consequences, Rey.”

She coos. “Oh no, are you going to _punish_ me, Kylo?”

His mind flashes quickly through various scenarios, all of which end with him buried inside of her, listening to her beg for a release he keeps denying her because she’s been so _bad_.

He drops her hand as if she’s burned him, takes a step back and knocks into a table covered in crystals. “What did you do?” He growls, feeling his pulse thrum rapidly in his neck. 

She pouts, and he has the urge to take that bottom lip between his teeth, worry it until she’s whimpering into his mouth, her hands scratching at his shoulders and back.

“I didn’t do anything, why?” Now she’s blinking up at him, eyes wide with feigned innocence.

They missed something, it’s the only explanation. She’s more than just an illegal potions brewer. Or the heat has already gotten to him. That must be it. The heat, the sun, this shithole town.

“This isn’t over,” he tells her, stepping back.

“No?” She arches a brow and also distances herself from him, leaning back against the counter. “Well, by all means, please feel free to come back when you can say what you’re actually here for.”

He gapes at her for several moments, before snapping his mouth shut, turning and stalking out of her shop and back into the heat. 

When he makes it back to his room, he slams the door behind him, already stripping out of his shirt. It lands in a dusty corner while his fingers tug at his belt, then at his buttons and the zipper on his pants. Two steps until he’s at the bed; it’s the work of seconds to shove his pants and briefs down over his hips to expose his aching cock.

His whole body shudders as he wraps a hand around it, tipping back to land on the comforter. He feels too hot, even with the air running at maximum, so he kicks off his jeans.

For a moment he lays there. Hand wrapped loosely around himself, heat-flushed and heaving. Then he groans, dragging his hand up to his chest, his neck, letting his mouth fall open so he can lav at it with his tongue. Broad, sloppy strokes while his other hand reaches down to fondle his balls. This time when he grips himself there’s more glide and less drag.

A moan slips past his panting lips as he strokes up, then down, letting his thumb brush over his weeping slit, rubbing precum over his glans. Up and down until he’s thrusting up into his hand, the circle of thumb and forefinger slippery with his fluids, helping him along, his other hand busy massaging. He can hear the bed creak and groan with his movements, but he doesn’t care who might hear. 

He tries not to think about her, really, he does, but it’s all his brain provides. Vivid imagination filling in what he doesn’t know; what he couldn’t see. Tan skin, everywhere he can touch, tits, the perfect size to fit in his palm, topped with pink nipples he craves to take into his mouth. That mouth, open with ragged breaths as he takes her, head tipped back in bliss.

He grunts, he can feel how close he is, teetering right on that edge. His brain is more than happy to supply him with motivation. The expression on her face. The way her mouth had formed the words: “Are you going to _punish_ me, Kylo?” He gasps her name as he comes hard all over his chest and hand.

“Fuck.” He rubs his clean hand over his face while catching his breath. He’s fucked up. Beyond just the obvious — evidence on his body, softening cock still gently clasped in his hand, thought of a target while jacking off — fucked up, but in the whoops way too. 

They had definitely missed something. He thinks back to her folder, sitting innocently on his mother’s desk. All of that covertly collected evidence from Finn and not one whisper or mention of her having power. He had felt it, though, when he’d gripped her hand — felt it crash over him like a wave. 

He stumbles into the bathroom, takes a cold shower, washing the evidence of his indiscretion down the drain, and pads back into the room to stand naked in front of the air conditioner unit. If he didn’t know any better, he would think someone cursed the town to be eternally hot, able to permeate walls and make the indoors miserable as well.

The ringing of his phone draws his attention and he moves to pick it up.

“Mother,” he greets, sitting down on the bed, stretching his legs out across the worn carpet.

“You’ve arrived safely, then?”

“Yes, of course, I sent you a text. It’s miserable here,” he tells her and she laughs.

“I’m sure it is, and ‘I’m here’ doesn’t exactly mean you made it there safely. Have you made contact yet?” she asks, and he can practically imagine what she looks like in the moment, reclined back in her chair, ankles crossed, probably inspecting her nails, and looking as nonchalant as ever, but it’s only just a ruse. She’s always alert.

“I have, and I think we have a problem.”

There’s a noise, as she presumably shifts in her chair. “Oh? What kind of problem?”

“The ‘we don’t have all of the information and she definitely has powers’ sort of problem.”

“Ah,” Leia replies, not sounding all that surprised, but she’s well-practiced at holding her cards close to her chest. “Well, I’m sure you can handle it. I sent you for a reason, you were worried this was beneath you, I’d say maybe it’s not after all.” Then she hangs up and he’s listening to dead air, brain betraying him by supplying an image of what, or rather _who_ he would like to see beneath him.

At dinner time he ventures back out. A quick incantation to minorly disguise himself, as he recognizes more than one face on the streets below from his window. While he’s itching for a fight, he wants it to at least be a fair one. No one in this town can take him, even if he doesn’t use his magic.

There’s a bar and a diner and he crosses the street at a jog to go to the latter. He takes a booth near the back and orders a chocolate milkshake, ice water — no lemon, and a double cheeseburger with all the fixings as well as caramelized onions — double fries and an extra pickle. Thank you, very much.

He passes the time until his food arrives by watching the other patrons.

“So I have a question,” a voice asks, body sliding into the seat across from him, hand reaching out and snatching a fry from his plate. His eyes dart up to watch Rey take a bite from _his_ french fry with a grin.

“Get your own food,” he grumbles, pulling his plate closer with a frown.

“Don’t you worry about me, back to my question.” She pops the remaining piping hot starchy goodness into her mouth and then glances around the diner. “That thing you’re doing,” she whispers, leaning forward, “with your face. How are you doing it?”

“Why are you selling love potions?”

She shrugs, leaning back with a grin. “It’s lucrative.” He scoffs. “It is. Besides, who said I was selling love potions? Was that the rumor you barged into my shop wondering about?” She looks positively gleeful. “You’re here to arrest me, aren’t you?”

That surprises him. “No, of course not. Just following a lead.” He grimaces as he says it, but she thankfully misses it as her food arrives. He observes the easy familiarity between Rey and the server, wonders how often she eats here to have ‘a usual’, to have them seemingly start making it when she walked in, but he doesn’t ask about it, instead, he steers the conversation in the direction he wants. “Tell me what you see when you look at my face?”

“You,” she answers quickly, “but fuzzy? Like the edges of your face are vibrating.”

“Interesting,” he replies, watching her dip her fries into her milkshake. “That’s disgusting.”

“I didn’t ask you,” she quips with another smile. He should hate how she doesn’t give a shit about him, isn’t intimidated by him, but he doesn’t. He takes a large bite of his burger to try and forget how much he doesn’t hate it, but it’s hard, and getting harder, especially with how vocal she’s being with her enjoyment of the food.

“So?” She finally asks when she’s done. They hadn’t talked while eating, and now she’s leaning back against her seat, taking him in like she can see through every layer of armor he’s ever tried to build up around himself.

“So what?”

“Are you here to arrest me?” He sighs, rolling his jaw, thinking about how his mother told him to take his time when she had dropped this assignment in his lap last week.

“It’s an ongoing investigation,” he says instead and she snorts, devolving into laughter like it’s the funniest thing she’s ever heard.

“Okay,” She finally manages to say after calming down. Then she’s standing, reaching out for his hand across the worn-down laminate of the tabletop. “Come with me. I think I have something that might interest you back at the shop.”

 

Her shop is dark and cool as they step inside and he exhales in relief.

“It’s not that hot,” she huffs, walking deeper into the store, “be thankful it’s a dry heat. Now come on.” She waves him back and he follows, watching her disappear behind the curtain from which she had first appeared.

It’s warm back here; several cauldrons are percolating, and the counters are in disarray. He should take her in for that alone. He steps closer to the counter on the left.

“What is this?” he asks, recognizing the ingredients, but he’s never seen them used together before.

“An experiment,” she informs him, sounding excited and proud, coming up beside him, popping up onto her tiptoes to look in at the bubbling deep green mixture.

“An experiment?” His tone is sharp as he turns to glare down at her. He waits until she turns, a bright smile on her face before continuing. “Do you have — _any_ —idea how dangerous that is?”

She scoffs. “You worry too much, you’ll get premature wrinkles that way. I have something for that though. Costs a _pretty_ penny.” She leans back slightly and drags her gaze down his body and back up. “We might be able to come to an arrangement.”

The meeting of their lips is rough, messy, teeth clacking together, but neither one of them pulls away. He reaches out blindly with his left hand, sending ingredients and equipment clattering to the ground.

“Be careful with that,” she hisses, biting at his bottom lip, fingers dipping down to the button of his pants.

“It’s fine,” he growls, hoisting her up onto the cleared space, mouth moving to nip and suck at her neck. His hands push her shirt up and he groans against her skin, fingers meeting nothing but warm flesh. “Fuck,” he pulls back to take her in.

“Better than you imagined?” she asks, working at her own shorts now, getting them undone quickly, then settling back on her palms to press her chest out towards him.

“How did you know about that?” He runs a hand up her stomach, groaning again at how it nearly covers the expanse of it before he detours to her right breast, cupping it, covering it.

“I didn’t,” she laughs, wriggling out of her shorts as best she can without his help. “Was just a guess. You seem so tense. But your aura–” she trails off with another wicked grin, bringing her legs up to wrap around him and pull him closer.

He kisses her again to shut her up. She gets her fingers beneath his shirt and scratches lightly, making him shiver against her. Both hands come up and cup her breasts now, fingers pinching gently at her nipples. She bucks against him, hands drifting down again, pushing frantically at his pants; she only gets them low enough to free his straining erection. He gasps as her hand wraps as best as it can again around him, and she hums.

“What did you think about?” she asks, kissing slowly across his cheek to his ear. “When you were touching this cock earlier?” She pumps him slowly, barely touching him, and he swallows down the whimper that tries to escape. “Did you think about me, really? The way my tits would taste? The sounds I would make? How good it would feel to have your cock buried deep in my cunt?” She bites down on his earlobe as she finishes speaking and it prompts him into action.

He growls, deep and loud, fingers twisting tighter until she cries out, and then he pushes her back, reaches a hand around to support her, dips his head down and licks a stripe from the bottom of her free breast to her clavicle, before dragging his lips back down to lick and suck at her, his other hand still paying diligent attention to her left breast while she fists his cock.

“Yes,” he tells her around her flesh, “all of those things and more.” He bites gently, worrying the nipple until she whimpers his name, then switches to the other one.

She pulls his head back with a fistful of his hair and pulls him up to kiss him again. “I want you to fuck me,” she tells him, lips pressed to his. “I want you to fuck me hard.” She leads him by the cock to her slit. He grunts as she drags him up and down and up to her entrance. She nips at his lips when he flexes his hips, pressing minutely into her.

“Rey,” he whispers her name against her mouth and she kisses him again, shifting her legs and pulling him closer. They moan together as he slides in further, and she feels even better than he imagined a handful of hours ago. 

She’s panting now as he slowly rolls his hips against her, barely inching deeper with each thrust, and then with one finally press into her, he’s seated to the hilt. Her thighs are shaking on either side of his hips and she kisses him with a fervor he’s never experienced before.

“Please,” she whimpers, pulling away from him enough to look him in the eye.

Kylo presses a quick kiss to her lips once more and then begins to move, thrusting hard. She tips backwards, and he catches her, movement barely faltering as he helps lower her onto the table. He groans at the sight. Her hands are twisted up in her hair and her tits are bouncing in time with each thrust. The table is shifting in time with their fucking, a quiet squeak barely discernible over the sounds coming from each of their mouths and between their bodies. But he notices it — too late as Rey’s hands shift, clutching desperately at the table, nails gouging tracks in the woods as she comes around his cock. She shouts his name as the cauldron tips over the edge of the table. 

He reacts on instinct, hand leaving the heated flesh of her thigh to cut upwards through the air, throwing up a quick and dirty shield. The cauldron clatters onto the ground with a loud ‘gong,’ the liquid splashing across the floor and up to his shield before falling back down.

Kylo glances at Rey, body still fluttering around him. Her hair is damp around her temples with sweat, body flushed with release as she stares wide-eyed up at him. “Holy shit,” she gasps, staring at the cauldron on the floor and the sharp line of the potion across the floor. “Can you teach me how to do that?” she asks, shifting to sit up a bit more.

“You do need a teacher,” he agrees, “but later.” He rolls his hips against her again and grins when she moans, head tipping back as her hands come up to anchor themselves in his sweat-drenched hair.

She bites down near his shoulder, teeth on fabric when she comes again, attempting to muffle her scream. She’s a hot, rippling vice around him as he pumps a few more times before spilling into her. He rests his forehead against her clavicle, enjoying feeling her catch her breath for a few moments.

“You were right,” she says when he stands back up, pulling out of her.

“What?” he asks, hopping a little as he pulls his pants back up to zip and button them once more. He glances at her, legs still spread on the tabletop as she smirks at him. A wild, still sex-hazy part of his brain has the urge to press his fingers against her, scoop up the trail of his cum slowly trickling from her body and press it back into her.

She moves before he can, which is for the best because they just met and that would be weird. She presses her legs together and slips to the ground between his body and the table. “You said you were great at the sex.” She laughs as his expression falls into something unamused and she then steps around him to pick up her shorts and underwear, shimmying back into them, but leaving them undone.

“I hope you aren’t planning on leaving,” she says, stepping forward to look down at the mess on the floor. “Hmmmm, not volatile, but definitely didn’t like being jostled.” He watches in horror as she squats down and dips her fingers into the now yellow substance.

“What are you doing?” he barks, grabbing for her wrist for the second time that day.

“Would you calm down,” she huffs, letting him pull her up to stand. “It won’t hurt me, or anyone.”

“You can’t know that. What kind of fool just shoves their fingers into an unknown potion.”

“It isn’t unknown! It’s a contraception potion, but I’ve been modifying it to reduce the side effects of ridiculous cramping. Like birth control, but better, and minty tasting.”

“Contraception potion.” He parrots back and she nods.

“Don’t worry, I take the standard one regularly. Now go through that door. There’s buckets and mops. You’re helping me clean this up. Then I can show you what I brought you here to see.”


	3. Naudiz

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to RebelRebel for the beta read! And thank you to everyone who has read, left kudos or comments on this fic so far!

Kylo Ren doesn’t clean, at least not in mundane ways, but he doesn’t want to have to tell his mother why there’s been multiple, substantial magical surges in Jakku. He can just imagine that going over well. 

_“Yes, you see, I was balls deep inside of our suspected illegal potions maker and I fucked her so hard we displaced a cauldron of a different illegal kind of brew…”_

Yeah, he can handle scraping this ruined mess off of the floor just like this. He can’t even be that upset about it, still buzzing from his orgasm less than ten minutes ago. He blinks down at the gelatinous puddle and then over to Rey, bent over, wrestling with the cauldron, and has to fight down the urge to move towards her and run his large palms over her perfect backside. There’s something wrong with him. He blinks slowly. How many times will he think this thought?

“What did you do?” he asks, hands tightening around the handle of the mop he’s equipped himself with.

“Hmmm?” She twists enough to meet his stare and frowns before standing up to face him head-on. “I told you, I was modifying–”

“No, what did you do to _me?_ ” She still looks nonplussed by his anger, and he hates that.

“Nothing.” She frowns, hands on her hips as she drags her gaze up and down his body.

“You did something! I never– did you slip me some kind of potion? An aerial one.”

“If that rots through my floor, you’re paying to fix it,” she huffs, then reaches out to take his hand. It’s back — that swooping, tingling feeling. “Come with me,” she says, tugging at him. His other hand falls from the wooden handle and it lands on the floor with a clatter. 

She drags him up the creaky stairs at the very back of the building. He has enough time to register a woefully sparse living room: a peek at a small but tidy bedroom through an open door before the door at the end of the hall is pushed open.

“What the fuck?” he says, taking in an entire wall of shelves lined with potions, carefully crafted labels promising all kinds of things. _Love, lust, potency._ All in a variety of pale luminescent shades. Pinks, blues, greens, purples. All bottled for sale, some of the lust ones even done up in old fashioned perfume bottles.

“Explain. Now.” He bites out, turning on Rey with a fury he hasn’t felt in a long time.

To give her credit, she remains blissfully calm as she steps around him and gestures at her work table. “You were told to come here because of my alleged illicit wares,” she starts and he scoffs. “I know the rules of your people. How could I forget when I’m surrounded by people who failed to comply.” Her fingers smooth over the rough surface of the table. “Plutt was always treading a fine line. He sold actual love potions, you know. Another man bought them and tainted them with absinthe.”

He sucks in a sharp breath and she plucks a small vial from the table and spins back towards him. 

“When Plutt died, I got rid of everything he’d brewed, or had me brew, and I started over. And I faked all of it. I stole knowledge from people — just lifted it right from their minds when I made trips beyond the boundaries of this town. They never noticed, but I came back and I worked and experimented and I kept selling the standard fare downstairs, and then one day I felt ready.”

“You see, people find it much easier to stomach buying these sorts of things when there’s a pretty face attached, don’t ever think that pretty face could be lying. They’re all safe to consume, the ones that aren’t — they’re literally perfume. That’s it, mildly enhanced to blend and work with the user’s pheromones to draw in others. The potions are for self-use only. The placebo effect is a powerful thing.”

She presses the vial into his hand with a sad smile. “You’re welcome to stay and inspect everything up here, or take it with you. I’ll leave you alone.” She slips past him, leaving him staring down at the glass containing the potential evidence of her innocence.

He’s going to kill Finn when he gets home for not vetting the source properly. He should leave; go back to his hotel and call his mother and let her know, bring everything with him, including Rey, but he can hear the shower turn on, can hear her slightly off-key humming and decides it can wait another day.

She looks surprised to find him when she comes back downstairs, hair damp around her shoulders and in nothing but a pair of underwear and a lacy top that barely covers her. “Oh,” she gasps, before smiling gently. “You didn’t have to,” she says, gesturing at the almost clean mess they had made. “I just thought — I came down to take care of it.”

Kylo’s lips twist into a smirk. “Considering I helped make it, it was the least I could do for you.”

He watches her fidget, almost not knowing what to do with her hands, her earlier confidence missing for the moment. “You’re leaving, though?” she asks, crossing her arms beneath her chest, watching him finish removing the last remnants of her potion from the floor.

“Ah, yes, but if I could come back tomorrow, get started on–” He waves vaguely in the direction of the ceiling and she nods.

“Sure. I’ll be here,” she says, smile soft and a little sad.

“Okay.” Then he does something foolish. He carefully leans the mop against the table they fucked on and crosses to her in one step. “Goodnight, Rey,” he whispers, before claiming her lips in a gentle kiss. She looks as shell-shocked as he feels when he pulls away. 

“Goodnight.” She smiles, pressing a chaste kiss against his cheek and then he leaves, walking the dark deserted streets back to the place he’s saying. The proprietor is at the desk, and he gives them a curt nod as he passes, climbing the stairs to his room.

There are two missed calls from Leia, so he calls her back, but she doesn’t answer, forcing him to leave a brief message that he’s been in further contact with Rey, and is trying to gain her trust, and he’ll update her again when he has anything new to report.

The lie tastes bitter on his tongue, and it takes him too long to fall asleep, even after a lengthy cool shower.

Morning comes too soon, and too bright. Rolling from the bed, he curses himself for forgetting to draw the curtains shut. After another shower he meanders through town, masking spell in place, trying not to enjoy the way most people swerve around him because of the spell. Breakfast at the diner is a quiet affair; Rey doesn’t show up, but that’s fine, gives him more time to try and settle himself. He has work to do.

* * *

She’s behind the counter when he steps through the door. 

“Morning,” she greets, without looking up at him, “I’m sure you remember the way?”

“I do,” he responds stiffly.

“Let me know if you need anything.”

He hesitates, not knowing what to say or what he expected when he came here today, but it wasn’t this solid dismissal. It rankles. No one dismisses Kylo Ren. Later, though. He’ll take care of it later.

The room is almost exactly as he remembers, only now there is a thick binder on the desk. He flips it open; it’s full of notes in what he presumes is Rey’s handwriting. They’re wonderfully thorough, and before he knows it, Rey is knocking on the open door.

“I thought — I wondered — are you hungry? I usually break for lunch around this time.” 

“I could eat,” he concedes, standing and stretching.

“Are sandwiches okay? I don’t have a ton here, but–”

“That sounds perfect, thank you.”

He means to get back to reading her notes after lunch, but her fingers brush his as she takes his plate from him, and he feels that thing again. “What is this?” he croaks and she shrugs, as helpless to the pull as he seems to be.

So really he can’t be blamed for hoisting her up on the kitchen counter and eating her out until she screams his name. He doesn’t once protest as she pushes him back into her living room and down onto the couch. Can only clutch at her waist as she ravages his mouth and palms his cock through his pants. When she frees him and slithers down his body to take him into her mouth he can’t manage more than gasping her name and encouragement as his fingers make a mess of her hair.

She swallows it all when he cums, and he can’t catch his breath, allowing her time to tuck him away once more and climb back into his lap. She kisses him again, slow and thorough. He can taste himself on her tongue, likes the thrill it shoots down his spine.

Whatever this is, it’s dangerous.

 

They get caught up within it. She’s a marvel, a wonder, her notes are impressive and he knows, when he finally finds the courage to bring up coming back with him, of leaving this town behind, she will excel. She will one day match him. Sometimes, when he touches her, after the consuming wave of the _thing_ flows through them both, he can feel it: her power, thrumming in her veins. He wonders when the last time was — when two mundanes produced a child with so much potential and power.

His fourth night in Jakku he doesn’t go back to his hotel, letting Rey drag him into her bathroom, where they squeeze into her shower and then she pulls him down into her bed, their skin still damp with droplets of water.

Kylo takes his time, let’s his hands and mouth explore her body at a languid pace. She’s a mess before he even reaches her cunt, nails digging into the skin of his forearms when his tongue drags over a small tattoo he hadn’t noticed on her before. Small and silver, he kisses it and she cries out for him. 

He presses a finger against her dripping entrance, drags his teeth over the mark and she shatters.

“What was that?” she gasps, reaching for him, but he avoids her.

“I don’t know, but I mean to find out.” He shifts, pressing another finger slowly into her, stretching her, enjoying the way she works herself on his fingers.

“Where did you get this?” he asks, voice rough with want as he watches her jolt when he touches it again.

“What are you– ooooh,” she moans, reaches for her breasts, but he gently swats her hands away.

“Focus, Rey, and then I’ll get you where you need to be.” She whimpers, biting her lip before nodding, hooded, hazy gaze darting up to stare at him. “This tattoo.”

“I don’t have a–” he presses a thumb against it and she bucks against him, spine arching. “What is that?” She nearly sobs.

“That’s what I’m asking you. You have a tattoo here, silver, small, a rune.” She swears at him when the thumb from his other hand brushes against her clit. “Where did you get it?” He presses down against her sensitive bundle of nerves, but doesn’t move further, other hand curling around her hip to keep her still.

He clicks his tongue at her, watching tears of frustration build at the corners of her eyes. “You’re making this harder than it needs to be.”

“I’m sure it’s plenty hard enough,” she moans, left leg curling up around his lower back. She inhales deeply while he schools his face to not show how amused he is by her joke. “I don’t,” she gasps as his fingers twitch inside of her, “I don’t have any tattoos and never have.”

He lightens the pressure of his thumb, twitches it back and forth, can feel her body tremble, and stops, pressing firmly against it once more.

“Fucker,” she hisses, “I’m telling the truth.” He hums, like he’s considering it, but he can taste it on the air, the truth of her words, her desperation, so he relents. It doesn’t take much until she shatters, sobbing his name, drenching his hand and the sheets beneath her.

He works his fingers in her until she stops clenching around him, then slowly slips out with a wet squelch. Her legs are still twitching.

“You okay?” he asks, rubbing a soothing hand up and down her leg. She nods, body relaxing as a smile creeps onto her face.

“So good, do I really have a tattoo?” She sits up and he brushes against it again, making her body shudder. “Fuck, that’s dangerous. Stop touching it, or put your cock in me.”

“I can do both,” he teases, stroking his dick and leaning over to kiss her. She hums against him, smiling into the kiss, and wrapping both legs around his hips as he lines himself up. He hisses when he enters her, sure he won’t ever get over how incredible she feels. Almost like she was made to take him.

Her hands reach up, nails scratching gently at the back of his neck and he shouts in surprise, thrusting hard enough into her that she winces. She pulls back, eyes narrowed, and then she does it again. He sees stars.

“What the fuck was that?” he gasps, letting her push him off of her body, climb onto his back and push his hair out of the way.

She hums, then her lips press against him and he bucks into the damp mattress. “You have one too,” she whispers, sitting up on his lower back, fingers carefully tracing the lines of the rune. He can feel her cunt leaking his spend onto his skin, but he can’t be bothered to care, not with the pleasure her touch is evoking. He wonders how she held out so long against his onslaught.

When he can’t take anymore he rolls over beneath her, lets her settle over him and ride him to her heart's content.

“You feel so good, Kylo,” she coos just before she cums around him, not stopping until he’s frantically bucking up into her, chasing his release.

She kisses him, pushes her fingers into his hair, dragging the pads of her fingers over his own tattoo as she nips at his lower lip, then withdraws from him. “Are you staying?” she asks, slipping to the side of him to the narrow sliver of mattress left.

“Do you want me to stay?” he asks, rolling towards her, touch sliding over her sweaty skin.

“Only if you shower, you’re a mess.” He laughs at that, but agrees. They can worry about the rest in the morning.

But they don’t. At least, he doesn’t, too busy enjoying Rey for breakfast and lunch, only broken up by reading her notes. She occupies herself down in her shop. 

She insists they go eat at the diner for dinner. because they’ve barely eaten all day. He tells her he’s eaten plenty, and she tries not to laugh. They don’t talk about magic, it’s not a conscious decision, but they both abide by it, instead asking about one another. Favorite color, book, movie. Kylo tells her a little bit about his home, the lakes and flowers, watches her eyes light up at the thought of it all.

They barely make it up to her room.

His thumb traces the tiny silver rune on her hip as he moves. A gasp, a moan, her legs slide from his sweat-slicked skin with a hard thrust. Without breaking pace, he reaches back, large palm encasing her calf and he lifts it until it’s over his shoulder. The hand at her hip shifts, pressing her leg outward onto the mattress, opening her up to him, letting him angle deeper.

“Oh!” she gasps, her body moving in tandem with his, hands traveling restlessly from the sheets to her hair, her incredible tits, his own chest, wrapping around his biceps where her nails dig into his skin. 

The headboard of her small bed hits the wall with every thrust. It’s a sweet symphony of sound, her moans mingling with his groans, flesh on flesh, heavy breaths and they rhythmic pounding of wood meeting wood mixed with the quiet squeaking of straining springs.

“Kylo.” Sweet Circe he loves the way she says his name. He grins down at her, taking in the flush of her cheeks, how dark her eyes are, her kiss-reddened lips. 

“What is it?” he asks, turning his head and pressing his lips to her leg. A needy whine escapes her and he bites gently against her skin, chuckling darkly. “Do you want to cum, Rey? Is that it?”

Her grip on him grows tighter, both her cunt and hands. “Yes,” she practically sobs, “Wanna cum, please, oh, fuck, Kylo I just need–” he presses his thumb against her clit, rubbing down to where his cock presses into her to gather up the copious wetness leaking there before swiping the digit back up and pressing into her clit once more, drawing senseless patterns over the sensitive nub until she falls apart around him, screaming her release to the ceiling as she shudders and drags him down with her.

“Fuck, Rey, _fuck_ ,” he bites out, feeling her sweet cunt ripple and pulse around his cock. He manages a few more erratic thrusts into her before pulling out and spilling all over her stomach.

Her chest is heaving with gasping breaths as he releases her leg, lets it slip down off of his shoulder to land on the mattress with a gentle _thump_. He collapses forward onto his hands, breathing just as harshly as he stares into her smiling gaze. She shifts beneath him, arms stretching up above her head before disappearing between them.

“Rey,” he growls, watching her grin as she takes her fingers, now messy with his spend, into her mouth and licks them clean.

“Kylo,” she answers when she’s done. He doesn’t respond, instead, he shakes his head and falls to the side of her. She rolls into his side and exhales against his neck. His hand lazily falls over her hip, fingers stretching back to dance over her ass cheek. He counts to thirty-three and then she’s rolling away from him, standing from the bed to walk into the bathroom.

“I’m going to shower,” she calls over her shoulder. She turns back in the doorway, index finger scooping his lingering seed from her bellybutton. “You can join me if you want,” she offers, tongue darting out and swiping up the mess there with a wicked grin.

He lays on his back, staring at the ceiling for several breaths before rolling from the bed and following her. Soon. _Soon,_ he tells himself.

His phone pings and he rolls, reaching for his pants as the water turns on in the next room. Leia has been quiet, letting him do his job, so he’s not expecting the message that flashes across the screen.

_You’re in big trouble Ben Solo._

He stares at it, wondering what the hell he did, because there’s no way his mother could possibly know what he and Rey have been up to.

_I made arrangements, you’re coming home tomorrow, bring Rey. Reply to this message. Call me in the morning._

His hands shake as he types in the letters ‘O-K’ and then tucks the phone back in his pants pocket, grabbing his briefs while he’s down there. Rey is humming away again in the shower and it makes him smile. He takes a moment to try and calm down, not wanting to alarm her, before making his way into the muggy room.

“Took you long enough,” she teases as he slides into the small box shower behind her. He kisses her neck, taking the soap from her hands to finish the job she started.

Soon, it turns out, is sooner than he thought.


	4. Algiz

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to RebelRebel for the beta on this chapter!

She cracks open an eye to watch him dress, the early light of dawn beginning to peek through her window and gossamer curtains. She’s exhausted and sore in places she had long forgotten about but enjoys watching his back muscles shift as he picks up his discarded clothing for what seems like the fourth or fifth time. Rolling onto her back, she stretches with a wicked grin, wondering how little it would take to get him back into bed with her again.

Moving, she grips the thin sheet and pulls it up with a frown. It’s never been like this before. She feels almost insatiable, has since he wandered into her store trying to look casual and failing. 

“Sorry if I woke you,” his sleep rough voice breaks her from her musing and she turns her head to smile at him. “I have to go back to my room.”

“Sure.” She waves him off, “just leave the door unlocked, no one else is going to be mad enough to be awake and walking about at this hour.”

“I’ll be back soon,” he says, hovering, and she hums, relaxing as much as she can into her pillow. He wavers for a few moments, and she watches him frown, roll his jaw and then come to some sort of decision. 

He leaves her shell-shocked, staring at her open bedroom door after him, the feeling of a gentle kiss pressed to her forehead lingering in his wake. She sits up, let’s the sheet pool into her lap as her fingers brush at the skin. Everything since she met him has been intense and almost too much. She’s had days of incredible sex, rough, hard, wholly satisfying sex. And then this kiss.

Lingering for a few moments longer in the warmth of her bed, she finally stands, kicking a shirt and underwear over in the direction of her hamper. She brushes her teeth in the shower, and then leaves a trail of wet footprints back into her room, opening her small closet to grab clothes. It’s there, eyes catching sight of her glistening skin in the mirror on the back of the door that she remembers.

Turning fully, fingertips trailing up her thighs, she looks. It’s easy to spot. Iridescent silver standing out on her hip. She passes over it, almost afraid to touch it. Sure that the pleasure it shoots through her could bring her to her knees. But when shaking fingers finally press down upon the mark, nothing happens.

“Weird,” she mutters, then tries laying down on her bed and touching it, still nothing. Jumping up she tosses on a light green dress — made for the heat — and meanders into her kitchen to start the coffee machine.

A quick perusal of her meager shelf of books yields nothing promising, so she crosses into her lab and digs under the table into the crates of contraband Plutt had kept, traded and bought in underground dealings; accepted forms of payment for potions and the like.

“Come on,” she hisses through clenched teeth. She knows Kylo can’t arrest her for her false potions, but for all of this, he certainly could. 

There are books on bindings and summonings and companions. Books full of spells to curse people, to influence, to create a facsimile of love. To trap, to torture, to enhance. There’s an entire book written in Futhark and she pulls it out, full of hope. She doesn’t have time to stumble through translating, but she pushes it to the side to get back to later when she has the time. Her nose wrinkles as she moves the books around and uncovers a leather bound tome, pale in color, dimpled. She can almost _feel_ it pulse with dark magic.

“Well, well, well,” Kylo’s voice comes from behind her and she screams. “Look what we have here.” She watches as his booted feet come into view and then he squats down next to her. “You’ve been holding out on me, Sweetheart,” he murmurs with a sneer.

“I can explain,” she hisses, toppling over onto her butt. She whimpers, a sharp pain pulsing through her. “What are you doing?” she asks frantically as the pulse comes again, more intense than before. “Stop,” she gasps, “whatever you’re doing, please-” she cuts off before she can truly start to beg when he winces, hands reaching out to clutch so hard around the crate that the wood begins to splinter.

“Rey. I need you to breathe.”

“I am breathing! Never really stop I– _ah_! I need it, in case you didn’t know.”

“Cut the snark for one fucking second, I need you to calm down.”

“I’m trying, but it _hurts!_ ” Tears prick at the corner of her eyes and she tries taking in long deep breaths. As suddenly as the pain came on, it departs abruptly, leaving her gasping in shock and fear. “What did you do?”

“Nothing.”

“That wasn’t a spell?”

He hesitates, staring at her, sweat beading at his hairline, and she wonders how much he felt too. “Not one of my doing. Now explain.” He waves at the books, looking calmer, but terrified.

She gives him a quick explanation, even tells him he can take them all with him when he leaves to try and prove how much they aren’t hers, that she doesn’t want them.

“This one,” he says quietly, holding a hand over the box, “this one is dangerous.” She watches it emerge from the depths of the crate with awe, never having truly seen magic. His shield spell barely counted. She had been aware, but she also had his cock buried in her cunt and was understandably distracted. 

“You haven’t touched this, have you?”

Her hair falls into her face as she shakes her head, “No. It feels– I don’t like it, it’s dark.”

“Very dark,” he agrees. “Snoke would have killed a thousand men to get his hand on a book like this.”

She watches him drop the spell, letting the book fall back into the depths of the crate. There is no need to ask who Snoke is. Several of his followers have cropped up in Jakku in recent years, every one of them blindly hopeful they would be reassured. That Snoke would win whatever fight was happening outside their small town and come for them. Reward them for being so loyal. Snoke never came, and when word reached them all that he was dead and his followers imprisoned elsewhere...well, it wasn’t a pretty end.

“This is coming back with me,” he informs her, eyeing the crate and then sighing. “So are you.”

“What? Why? I thought you weren’t arresting me.”

“I’m not, Rey. Even with this contraband,” he tells her with a small smirk, “but you can’t stay here.”

“This is my home,” she says slowly, “I — can I come back?”

“Rey. You’re better than this shit hole. You can be someone out there, don’t hide from it.”

“I’m not!”

There’s a lengthy pause, and the silence settles thick between them. “Rey. You aren’t alone. You won’t be alone. I can teach you — _so much_ — but I can’t teach you here.”

She shifts, scooting across the floor until she can lean back against the wall and glare at him, noticing the way he winces. “Fine. When do we leave?”

“Today. My mother has purchased two train tickets on our behalf.”

“Your _mother?_ You told your mother–?” She waves a hand helplessly between them and he chuckles.

“Considering my mother is the one who sent me here to investigate you, I didn’t need to tell her anything.”

“Then why?”

“I don’t know.”

Rey nods slowly. “Okay. Sure, okay, yeah. This is fine, just let me. I need to pack. And lock up and _shit_. All of my stuff.”

“I can have a team come out and clear things out for you here. Pack your essentials, we can get the rest later.”

Rey scoffs, “Look, I know this is where you all like to send your banished criminals, but I would like to emphasize the _criminals_ part. They will break in and raid everything I’ve worked so hard on. This is my livelihood, Kylo.”

“It’s a good thing then that I am not restricted in my magic use here, isn’t it? I will ward the shop for you and send a team out as soon as we get back. Okay?”

Rey stares at him before scrambling to stand, “No, it isn’t okay, but I don’t have much of a choice, so let me go get packed. Stay here.”

“Rey,” Kylo reaches towards her, tone as gentle as the kiss to her forehead not two hours ago. His hand wraps around her ankle and she stills, letting him shuffle towards her, come up onto his knees and press his face into her stomach. Warm hands travel up her legs, settling on the backs of her thighs beneath the skirt of her dress, and she sighs. “I know this is a lot, and I understand if you’re mad, but — Rey, there’s something here. I know you know it.”

She sighs and lets her hands settle on his head, stroking over his hair. “I’m scared,” she confesses and feels Kylo’s fingertips press tightly into her skin as his head turns to press a kiss to her stomach over her belly button. “I’ve never left for long when I had to leave before.”

“You won’t be alone,” Kylo tells her before groaning deeply against her when her thumb arcs over the rune on the back of his neck. “Fuck, don’t do that, we have to get to the train on time.”

“Oh, what’s wrong, Kylo, does it feel good?” she teases, doing it again. “You were certainly smug about this last night when it was me in this situation.” His fingers press in again before pushing up to cup her ass. Rey tsks and brings her hands around to cup her cheeks, pulling him away from her. “I have to pack,” she tells him, pressing a quick kiss to his lips and disentangling herself from him. “Keep that one book out, I want to read it on the train.”

Leaving the room is a struggle. Digging out a worn duffle bag from beneath her bed frame is even more difficult. Her hands shake as she empties her closet carelessly, throwing things in the bag and jamming them in until they fit. It was his anger that spiked through her earlier, and now his arousal is pulsing, a low and steady thrum that consumes her. She feels half-drunk, stumbling around, trying to get her essentials, bumping into her dresser twice before giving up. She hasn’t even gone into the bathroom for her toiletries, but she can’t think about those things right now. Collapsing back against the wall by the bathroom door she rucks up her skirt, letting her fingertips drift over the spot where she knows the rune is. Still nothing. 

She feels like she’s burning up when she slips her hand beneath the elastic band of her underwear. Tears gather in the corner of her eyes and she sobs when her fingers brush over her clit. Swearing, she drops the fabric to tug awkwardly at the straps over her shoulders until she gives up to pinch and pull at her straining nipples through the built-in bra of the bodice.

Kylo comes careening through the door a moment later, but she doesn’t pause her movements, frantic now as she chases an orgasm she didn’t know she needed. “Look at you,” he breathes, crossing to her in two steps and doing what she could not, dragging the straps of her dress down over her shoulders until he reveals her breasts to his heated gaze. “So needy for me, aren’t you?” She makes a pathetic noise at that, fingers working faster, gasping when his lips wrap around a nipple. “It’s okay, I am too, Rey. I don’t understand what you’re doing to me.”

“Fuck, shut up, suck my tits again, I’m almost there.”

His chuckle is low and dark, but he does as she asks. Distantly, she realizes she’s chanting ‘please, please, please,’ as she hears the sound of his pants being undone, and then he’s shifting gently against her.

“Are you touching yourself?” she asks, groaning when his teeth scrape across one rosy bud in confirmation. Her knees buckle as she comes, but Kylo is there, holding her up, even as he pulls away from her. She whimpers in protest but quickly quiets as he spins her around and pushes up the skirt of her dress.

There’s barely time to catch herself against the wall as he pulls aside her underwear and plunges into her with one deep stroke. Her fingernails press into the ancient wallpaper, a warbling scream escaping her as he begins to move. She’s confident she’s just one long shuddering orgasm now, not sure how much more she can take. It doesn’t take Kylo long to finish, groaning his release as his teeth clamp down on the flesh between her neck and shoulder. Rey is pressed against the wall, a trembling sweaty mess as she drags in lungfuls of air.

Kylo soothes the bite with a kiss and then pulls out of her, shifting her underwear back into place and letting her dress fall back down around her legs. Pushing back to stand upright, she notes the marks her nails have raked into the wallpaper before spinning to look up at Kylo, who looks just as wrecked as she feels as he stuffs his dick back into his pants.

“Now what?” she asks, smoothing her hands over her hair.

“Now we finish getting ready to leave.” He lingers awkwardly for a moment, and Rey helps him out by slipping past him, reaching to squeeze his hand as she goes by.

She makes time for a shower but puts the same dress back on. Frowning at her bulging bag, she opts to forget the underwear and worry about that later.

Hefting her bag over her shoulder, she makes her way downstairs and into the front. She empties her safe and register and then waits for Kylo to reappear. The wait isn’t long before he meanders in, crate in his hands.

“You ready to go?” he asks, pausing in his stride.

Rey nods, slips around from behind the counter, picks her bag back up and leads the way out the front door. She takes her time locking up. Possibly unnecessary, considering Kylo is going to be warding the place, but she will rest easier knowing the door is at least locked.

She watches him as he takes his turn, palm flat against the door. Whatever he says is too quiet for her to catch; she’s only able to pick up the low, gentle cadence of his voice. A light blue ripple radiates from his hand, and she watches in awe as it spreads out and up around the entire building. He’s breathing hard when he finally steps back, nodding once as if satisfied at the job he did, then turns towards her. Rey shudders a bit. It’s like she can practically taste how smug he feels in the moment. The feeling only grows when he takes her hand in his.

They’re quiet on the way to the train station — no more than a sad little platform on the outskirts of town. Rey has never been here before, but she takes it in in one sweeping glance: the awning overhead, the dusty benches, and the empty vending machines with missing buttons.

“Quaint,” she says, making Kylo chuckle. 

“We don’t have long to wait, don’t worry,” he assures her, and she nods, opting to lean against his solid frame, feeling the way his chest rises and falls with his breathing, letting it steady and calm her as they wait for the train.

Ten minutes later it whistles its way into town, and Rey clings tighter to Kylo’s hand as the conductor greets him by name. He introduces himself to Rey as Albee, gives a dramatic bow and offers to help with their bags.

Albee leaves them alone in a cabin roughly the size of Rey’s bedroom if she includes the attached bathroom. Kylo slings his bag onto the top bunk and kicks off his shoes. Rey drops her own bag in the middle of the floor and moves to the window, toeing off her own shoes as they begin to leave the station.

She takes a deep breath and releases it slowly as the train picks up speed and the town of Jakku dwindles into nothing more than barren desert.

“Are you all right?” Kylo asks, voice gentle and right against her ear. She tilts her head back to try and look at him, but he crowds closer to her, wrapping his arms around her from behind and resting his chin on her shoulder.

“Yes,” Rey tells him honestly, nudging his arms enough so she can turn around in them. “I am.” She presses her face into the soft fabric of his shirt and hugs him, lets him hug her. It’s the most innocent embrace they’ve had yet, and Rey bites her lip to stifle her laugh at the thought.

“Come here,” he says, pulling back, capturing her hands and tugging her towards the small bench they can utilize as a bed. Reaching into to his back pocket, he produces the book written in Futhark she had asked him to keep out, and then climbs into the narrow space. It takes some work, but they both manage to fit snugly; her back pressed against his front. He lets her hold the book, content to let her use his right arm as a pillow and trace patterns on her skin beneath her dress with the other.

It doesn’t take him long to discover she’s gone without underwear for the trip, and she feels him grow hard behind her as she stumbles through reading the book. Kylo is patient, helping her untangle words he’s fluent in where she’s only been self-taught. Even Plutt could barely read Futhark. 

She tries to quit when he apparently gives up on behaving, dipping his fingers between her thighs, but he tells her not to stop. So she doesn’t, slowly pulling the words out into understanding as Kylo reads over her shoulder and strokes lightly at her cunt, not enough to bring her pleasure, but enough to make her desperate with want.

Rey wriggles back against him, hoping to provoke him, but all he does his press a lingering kiss to her left shoulder and withdraw his hand, settling it on her mons, fingertips now stroking her hair there. This is somehow even more distracting, and she knows he thinks it's amusing, can feel the joy pulsing in her; she wonders if he can feel her frustration as acutely. She turns the page.

“This isn’t as informative as I was hoping it might be,” she sighs, closing the book around her index finger. 

“No, I’d imagine not, but it’s good practice for you.” He nuzzles into her shoulder, can feel him smile. “Keep reading, you’re just getting to the fun part about familiars.”

She rocks back into him, forcing a surprised grunt from his lips, and then opens the book back up.

“Read out loud this time,” he tells her, adjusting his arm beneath her head.

She does. Slowly. Kylo rewards her, sliding his hand down her thigh and lifting her leg enough to wedge his knee between them, holding her open. Then his hand drifts slowly back up, teasing the soft flesh of her leg just below her center. She keeps reading, trying not to let him distract her, but she gasps when he finally moves, fingers teasing her entrance once more.

“So wet,” he purrs, fingers delving deeper. “Keep reading,” he insists.

He rewards her with pleasure. Fingers stroking slowly and solidly within her as she reads. Stopping when she urges him to give her more. Thumb tracing gentle circles on her clit when she reads an entire paragraph without faltering once. The noises he’s pulling from her are obscene, loud in the small space and she can smell herself now, her want for the man behind her permeating the air. Her legs are shaking, she’s been close to cuming multiple times now and he’s pulled back every time. The first time, he pushed her dress back up to her waist. The second time she had to keep reading, whole body trembling, while she listened to him suck his fingers clean of her.

She makes it through another paragraph, whines the last word and turns the page. A new chapter. The book slips from her fingers as Kylo croons in her ear about being such a good girl for him, and her hand reaches up, blindly searching for him. She turns, desperate, towards his face as he whispers she can cum now, fingers not relenting this time. He devours her mouth with a kiss as she shatters around his hand. Pulling away, she drops her head down onto his arm for a moment to catch her breath. He pulls out of her gently, and she shuffles the whole way around to face him in time to watch him lick his hand this time. She kisses him again when he’s done, moans against his pouty lips as her fingers fumble with his belt buckle.

“You should really stop wearing this,” she says against his mouth between kisses. “I’m getting tired of undoing it.”

He laughs against her mouth, pulls her even closer to his body, and has to pull away to laugh properly when she throws the offending article across the room behind her. “I’ll think about it,” he says, diving back in to kiss her again and again until she has her fist wrapped around his cock. Rey hums quietly and pulls back, his lower lip caught between her teeth. When she lets him go she presses a quick peck to his lips and then slithers down his body, pushing him over so he’s laying on his back.

“Lift,” she says, tugging at his pants, and he does, letting her pull them down enough to expose what she wants. They hold eye contact as she lowers her head and slowly licks a stripe up the center of his shaft, the tip of her tongue just barely flicking over the head before she retreats and licks again. Then her hand is back, holding him where she wants as she licks and kisses his cock, her other hand passing over his thigh, and then cupping his ballsack. She hums happily when he starts to swear and buck against her. Then she switches tactics, hand moving languidly up and down his wet cock while she shimmies lower to kiss and lick and fondle his sack. His thighs begin to shake on either side of her head, the twitching of solid muscle, and she pauses to kiss each one, then raises up, pressing a kiss to the tip of his cock before opening her mouth and sliding down over it.

She hums in delight at the taste of him, the feel of him, heavy on her tongue. Moans as his hands delve into her hair to attempt to guide her, feels him holding himself back as he switches between saying her name and swearing. Rey shifts, pulling the hand still working at his balls away, and presses it against his hand in her hair. She opens her eyes, finds him watching her and grins around him. It’s all the invitation he needs, moving her head up and down on his cock before he changes his mind and bucks up into her mouth while holding her in place.

He isn’t even making any sense near the end, a litany of phrases in English, French, Latin and something else she doesn’t recognize, but she knows what it signals. He tries to lift her off, but she just nuzzles down farther and moans to encourage him. It isn’t a lot, and she’s thankful for that, but they had sex not even three hours ago. The taste of him on her tongue is a little bitter and lingers after she swallows.

Rey squeaks when he hauls her up by her shoulders so he can kiss her again. “We should try and sleep,” he tells her, kicking off his pants and sitting up to grab the blankets.

“Okay,” she agrees with a nod, finally feeling tired again, the full-bodied exhaustion from the morning seeping into her. They tuck themselves into each other and Kylo drapes the blanket over them. Rey drifts off after he kisses her forehead again.

* * *

“Fuck off,” she mutters, swatting at the hand shaking her. A snort of amusement from somewhere above her head and she’s being rocked once more.

“Wake up, Rey, we’re almost there.” She cracks one eye open to glare at Kylo. “Also, I need to piss and I can’t get out of here with you wrapped around me like this.”

Rey grumbles and acquiesces that he has a point because she’s basically hugging him with her whole body. She rolls over and gets out of the bed. Stretching up onto her toes, her fingertips almost brush the ceiling. Kylo wraps and arm around her, kisses her temple and then disappears into the bathroom. Rey rubs at her eyes and steps closer to the window, and the view makes her breath catch.

“You okay?” Kylo says, practically bolting from the bathroom, “I felt–”

“I’m okay,” she hurries to assure him. “I just, this is gonna sound stupid, but I didn’t know there could be so much green.” She presses her face closer to the glass, too focused on what’s outside to be able to watch Kylo approach behind her. 

“It’s not stupid,” he assures, wrapping his arms around her. 

“It looks so much better in real life than it does in pictures,” she breathes and he hums. They both jolt when the train begins to slow slightly.

Behind her Kylo sighs, and holds her tighter. “Welcome to Naboo,” he says, then steps away to get dressed. Rey tears herself away from the window long enough to also use the bathroom, and then she’s bouncing on the balls of her feet as they pull into a stunning, state of the art train station.

Albee appears when the train stops, knocking on their door and offering to help with their bags once more. Kylo takes Rey’s hand and leads her off the train, where he promptly stops Rey stumbles a few steps forward without him and turns to glare at him.

“What is it?” she asks, feeling the sudden spike of _something_. She isn’t sure if it’s fear or anger or something else altogether, but he doesn’t get a chance to answer.

“Ben, welcome home.” Rey turns, confused, towards the woman speaking. She’s older and shorter than Rey is. Another pulse from Kylo — this time trepidation and nervousness, and her own thoughts begin to spiral. 

“You must be Rey,” the woman says, smiling, stepping towards her, arms outstretched, “I’m Leia Organa.” Rey feels her take her hand. Her grip is firm, her skin is cool and soft. “Welcome to the family.”


	5. Ehwaz

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we are - we made it to the end! I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it.  
> Thank you to everyone who has read this, weather from the beginning and you've been patiently waiting for every update - or you're just finding it and reading it now.
> 
> To Ohwise1ne - I'm honored to have gotten you for the anniversary exchange - your prompts were all so wonderful and this got longer than I had first planned out, but it's been fun! I'm only sorry it's taken me months to get this wrapped up for you.
> 
> To RebelRebel - Thank you so much for your constant support and encouragement throughout this fic - it's better after being in your capable hands and care.

He’s pacing the small room like a caged predator, and Rey keeps shivering when his power spikes and fills it, crashing into her in waves and she’s sure he doesn’t even realize it.

Leia is just watching him from behind her desk looking amused. Rey isn’t sure if they’re waiting for him to wear himself out or some other cue to signal the continuation of their discussion on the train platform.

If Rey is being honest, she still feels as if she left part of herself back there. She had smiled politely at Leia, assuming, apparently incorrectly, that she was being welcomed into their fold, _coven_ , she didn’t even know, but then Kylo had huffed and barked ‘explain’ at his mother.

Rey shifts in her seat, uncrossing and crossing her legs, wrapping her arms around herself. The air conditioning is on in Leia’s office, a luxury she didn’t have in Jakku, and she’s freezing, on top of having to feel Kylo’s power from time to time. She can’t even figure out what he’s feeling, he’s all over the place, and it’s mostly making her feel sick to her stomach.

“Ben, would you please take a seat,” Leia sighs, and Rey bites her lip. That was the other thing, his name is Ben, and she feels a sharp sting of hurt that he never told her. Not that it’s that big of a deal, they’ve only known each other for a handful of days, spent the majority of it with their mouths occupied with other activities, but _still_ , it hurts.

Ben halts suddenly, and Rey isn’t sure if it’s because he’s finally ready to listen, or he’s felt what Rey is feeling, but his intense gaze focuses on her and she sinks down in the chair.

“Yes,” he finally says, glancing over to his mother. Then he strides over to the pair of chairs, and Rey relaxes minutely, thinking he’s finally going to sit. He doesn’t, reaching for her, pulling her up as if she weighs nothing to him. She squeaks a bit, protesting over the manhandling in front of his mother, but he gathers her into his arms, and then spins, sitting down with her perched in his lap. “You’re cold,” he whispers, nose pressed against her temple as his arms wind around her.

“I’m okay,” she answers, but doesn’t move, allowing him to try and help.

“Explain to me, please, how this came about,” Leia presses and Rey bites down on the inside of her lower lip.

“I don’t know,” she confesses quietly and Leia smiles.

“I know, dear, you’re not at fault here, my son, however–”

“I didn’t do anything. We didn’t do anything.”

Leia scoffs and rolls her eyes. “Ben, you don’t just show up in the book of bonding by doing nothing.”

“What’s the book of bonding?” Rey asks, shifting on Ben’s lap, making him hiss.

Behind her, Ben makes a noise, and his head thumps against her shoulder. “It’s special, it’s magic, light magic. Traditionally couples petition to be added to the keeper of the book — my mother — and there’s a handfasting ceremony, and a small ritual, but it’s for life.”

She can feel how tense Ben is beneath her. She makes eye contact with Leia, who gives her a small half-smile and Rey exhales. “So we’re like married? That’s what you’re telling me? We accidentally got married somehow between all the–”

“No!” Ben interrupts, slapping a hand over her mouth before she can say _fucking_.

“A little bit,” Leia says gently, glaring at her son. “There’s no need to censor her, Ben, I’ve been present for rituals before.”

“Oh Circe, take me now,” he groans into the soft fabric of Rey’s dress.

“We need to discuss this, I know it’s uncomfortable, but the last people to provoke a bond this way were your grandparents, and they refused to ever talk about it.”

“Wouldn’t know why,” Ben snarks, arms curling tighter around Rey, and she reaches down, clutching at his thigh as fear spikes through their bond.

“I’ll protect you Ben, you and Rey both, that was a completely different situation, and it won’t be happening ever again. We’ve moved on from bonding exiles, you know that.”

“But what if–”

“No. It won’t happen. I lost my parents because of that foolish rule, I’ll be damned if I lose my son.” The conviction in Leia’s tone cuts through Ben’s fear, and Rey swallows thickly. She’s never had time to be jealous of other people, there are no children living in Jakku. She’s had plenty of time to feel bad for herself, to come to terms with the type of people her parents were, but she’s never had to come face to face with the type of love she’s been missing.

Ben’s low timbre cuts through her thoughts, “Shh, sweetheart, I’ve got you.” His thumb brushes over the place where her rune hides beneath her skirt and she sighs. “This is a lot, I know.” She nods in agreement and blinks furiously, fighting back moisture.

Leia watches them, looking almost wistful, leaning back in her chair. “We can come back to this later. Let's pretend things unfolded as expected. Ben investigated your business, your potion-brewing, found you innocent, and convinced you to return here with him — for proper training. Ben?”

He is silent behind her for a long moment and then blurts, “You expected me to find nothing?” 

“I thought it highly likely, Unkar Plutt was less than impressive before he broke the law, I would be impressed if he could train anyone to be competent at making love potions.”

Rey snorts.

“I would normally agree, but Rey is fantastically self-taught. She was crafting false potions — nothing harmful in them, no actual effects. However, she _can_ brew potions, and I confiscated an impressive collection of dark texts that Plutt had apparently accepted as payment for _his_ illegal brews over the years.”

“I see,” Leia says slowly. “It’s rare, you know, to find fresh blood. Someone from mundane parents. I’m sorry it took so long for us to find you, Rey. If you would like, you can stay here, in Naboo. We can teach you to hone your craft, as well as a few other skills that we can test your proficiency in. Though, if you’ve bonded with my son, I’d wager you’ll be proficient in most of them.” 

Through the bond Ben feels smug, and proud, but not about himself, about her, and she feels emotional all over again. 

She nods slowly, answering with a smile. “I would like to stay.”

Ben exhales, kisses her shoulder blade and she can feel his body fall lax beneath her. 

Leia smiles warmly at her, “Excellent. There are obviously things that still need to be discussed, but they can wait for the moment. Let’s take a break to grab a bite to eat. My treat. Would you like to walk? Show Rey some of the sights?”

Ben shifts her on his lap and she takes that as her cue to stand, stepping to the side so Ben can stand up as well. “That sounds like a wonderful idea,” Ben says, reaching for Rey’s hand.

 

Rey stands stupefied in the entryway. The door closes softly behind her and then Ben is stepping around her and further into his home. It’s beautiful. She can’t believe he tolerated spending any kind of time in her home. Sure, Leia’s office had been lovely, and Naboo as a whole is like something out of an absolute dream… This, though, is luxury.

Windows stretch from floor to ceiling and make up the entire far wall of the place; there’s nothing beyond it now that night has fallen and Ben has turned on every light she can see — instead, only her own owlish expression reflecting back at her. Gorgeous wooden floors gleam underneath her feet, while a large plush couch and matching chairs have been placed perfectly on an accent rug overtop it. To the left, a bar separates the living space from the kitchen, and to the right, there’s a hall and a wall consumed by a fireplace made out of what looks to be obsidian, a television mounted above it.

“Tea?” Ben’s voice breaks her out of her trance and she blinks, turning to look at him.

“What?” she croaks, eyes bouncing around everywhere, taking it all in.

“Tea, would you like any?”

“Yes.” She shifts, toes off her shoes and takes a hesitant step in Ben’s direction. “I’m sorry, is that a sword?” She asks, eyes catching on the weapon mounted along the wall around the corner from the entrance.

Ben busies himself with the kettle, pulling two mugs down from his cabinets before finally turning around to look at her. “It is.” He works his jaw and she shuffles closer to him still. “I don’t often need to use it, but it came in handy during the conflict with Snoke, and others in the past. It was my grandfather’s, but I modified the hilt a bit to better suit me.”

“It’s beautiful,” she says, not knowing what the proper response is to this. Ben snorts and reaches for her, dragging her close to his body.

“Are you okay?” he asks, hand running soothingly up and down her back, “I could feel you freaking out.”

“It's just really, really nice. And I — you saw my place, Ben.”

His tone is neutral when he answers her. “I did. You’re more than welcome to stay here with me, or if you’d rather not — I know this is a lot. It’s so much, so fast, and there are no rules or guidelines really for what happened to us.”

“You would want me here?” She hates how small her voice is, how insecure she feels. 

“Yes,” he answers quickly, arms tightening around her, “I’d love to have you here, but if it’s not what you want — you don’t ever have to do anything you don’t want to. My bed _is_ pretty big though, plenty of blankets for you to try and steal.”

She pushes at his chest with a laugh. “I do _not_!” she insists and he shrugs, tucking her beneath his arm, steering them around to grab a canister of loose leaf. She takes pity on him attempting to fill the infusers one-handed and helps before he pours the hot water into the mugs.

“I like your mom,” she says, watching the way the steam curls up into the air.

Ben barks out a laugh and kisses the top of her head. “I’m not surprised. The two of you will be trouble, I can just feel it.”

She lifts the mug on the left and cradles it in her hands, savoring the way the warmth leeches into her skin. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.”

Ben smirks as he hums, steering her gently into the living room so they can sit on the couch together, and Rey tucks her feet beneath her and herself into Ben’s side.

“Ben Solo,” she says out loud, tasting the name on her tongue, and then, “Kylo Ren.”

“I should have told you sooner.”

Rey laughs, “When?” She turns to look at him and takes a small sip. “I was there, there wasn’t a lot of time for that sort of thing.”

“On the train, I could have,” he says confidently and it just makes Rey laugh all over again. “I _should_ have at least.”

“It’s done, but tell me about it?” she asks.

“It’s not very exciting,” he tells her, taking a drink of his own tea and Rey clambers carefully onto his lap, already sensing his resolve to attempt avoiding the conversation. “Okay, okay, careful!” He reaches around her, taking her own cup as he goes and settles them on the coffee table with a small snort. “I’ll tell you, but if it puts you to sleep, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Rey rolls her eyes, and moves with Ben as he shifts back, sitting deeper in the couch, spreading his legs slightly, forcing her flush with his chest. “I was unnaturally gifted at an early age, at least that’s what my mother likes to tell me. I’m not unconvinced it’s just a parent seeing the absolute best in their child, but she started teaching me early, hired a tutor and everything.”

“How old were you?” Rey leans her head against his shoulder, takes comfort in the rise and fall of his chest beneath her own.

“Five? Maybe six. He was… well, a fraud. It took years to come out, how corrupt he was. He hid it well, but becoming my tutor was his in to Naboo. He had been wanting to come here for ages, power-hungry, but patient. It happened slowly, turning the people here against each other, against my mother and uncle.”

She can feel it, the anger and shame bubbling in him and she pulls back, places a gentle hand on his cheek. “And you?”

His eyes close and he nods. “And me. He promised me so much, could see the things I wanted, spun tales of how I could have all of that and more. He… I don’t know, it all seemed so _good_. So I went by a different name and wore a mask so no one would know it was me. Then I watched him sacrifice someone. It was _awful_.”

“How old were you?” Rey attempts to press closer, feeling the way recalling this hurts him, wanting to offer comfort.

“Eighteen, almost nineteen. Dumb enough to be a massive idiot, smart enough to know to get the fuck out. So I did. I told my parents and then they called in my uncle, and things unraveled quickly from there. Snoke and his followers retreated, we let them go, until it was time to confront them. It took so long. I trained to become a magical enforcement officer and kept the name Kylo Ren because again, I was young and dumb and I liked how scared that name made people. The fallen son of Leia Organa, trained in the dark arts, returning to the light and now arresting criminals.” He scoffs, “nevermind that part of it isn’t true. I studied the darker sides of magic, but never practiced them.”

“So you still go by the name because?”

“Because people like to talk. Half of the things people say Kylo Ren has done aren’t real or things I’ve done. He’s like a myth, a legend, and well, I did kill Snoke. He liked to talk, called me Kylo Ren, there were people around us when it happened. So, Kylo Ren killed him, _not_ Ben Solo, even though– but it’s just easier this way. There aren’t a lot of people that call me Ben anymore.” 

She turns her head slightly, presses a gentle kiss against the side of his neck, and whispers his name. “Ben.”

His chest hitches with his quick inhale and she kisses him again, drawing back to look him in the eye. “Ben,” she repeats, smiling gently, watching his expression shift. “I like it,” she tells him as he pulls her back in, arms solid around her.

“So do I.”

Rey gets two days to settle in, and then it’s nothing but books to read and things to learn and herbs to identify and potions to learn the theory of before brewing and Leia testing her current knowledge. Somewhere, in the midst of it all, Ben sends out a team like he promised, and it’s an overcast Thursday afternoon when Rey comes through the door of his apartment to find the contents of her shop.

She stops just inside, pushing the door closed with her heel. “Oh!” 

From down the hall the bedroom door opens and Ben’s head appears. “Got your stuff.”

Rey rolls her eyes and rips the tape from the closest box. “Where are we going to put all of this?” she asks. “Nothing is labeled!” she yells turning towards the hall, jumping when she finds Ben right behind her.

“Sorry,” he says, not sounding apologetic at all, reaching around her to pull out the item on top — a plate wrapped haphazardly in packing paper. “These can go in the kitchen. I have the space. If we run out–” she watches him shrug, “I can teach you some extension charms.”

Rey snorts, “Yeah, okay, this isn’t _Harry Potter_.”

Ben unwraps another plate and walks into the kitchen. “You’re right, what I should have said was spell work for extended dimensions within our perceived reality.”

Rey’s mouth drops open, then snaps shut, then falls open once more. “Fine,” she says, not having a decent retort, then, “Stop that,” she huffs, rolling her eyes at his deliberate opening of the bond between them so she can feel his amusement.

“You’re cute when you’re angry,” Ben says, coming back and pressing a kiss to her cheek. “Come on, let's get this done.”

They spend two hours sorting through her stuff before she quits, flopping down onto the couch face first.

“How did I even fit all of this in that tiny place?”

“Dunno,” Ben answers from somewhere down the hall where he’s rearranging things in the bedroom. She hears his footsteps as he approaches, his fingers feathering through her hair and she turns to look up at him, hovering over her from the other side of the arm of the couch. “What are you doing?” 

“I’m hungry,” she informs him, rolling onto her back.

Ben snorts and circles around until he can reach her hands and pull her up. “Come on, let’s go out.”

Their hands swing between them as they walk down the sidewalk. Rey lets him take her where he will, since the only places she’s been have been the sleek building where Leia’s office is, the small restaurant they went to, Ben’s apartment and the low sprawling set of buildings that they use to teach magic in. Rey tries to take it all in, the trees along the sidewalk, the little flower boxes outside of windows overflowing with herbs. There are people — always people she’s noticed in the little time she’s been here. 

People walking anywhere in Jakku was suspicious, which is why she figures Ben used that spell to try and hide himself better. That and she doesn’t actually know a person in Jakku who wouldn’t attempt to kill Kylo Ren if given half a chance.

“You’re thinking hard,” he interrupts her thoughts, squeezing her hand.

“Will you tell me about it?” she asks, “about why you go by Kylo Ren, when that isn’t even your name?”

“Sure, but at home, away from listening ears.” He brings their hands up, brushing a kiss across her knuckles and she can feel herself begin to blush, so she looks away. 

People tend to give them a wide birth, but she’s noticed the stares. How could she not? After all, it apparently wasn’t every day that people ended up in the book of bonding, let alone the only son of Leia Organa. She catches the eye of a man across the street — he looks away as soon as he realizes he’s been caught and Rey sighs. 

“It will pass,” Ben tells her.

“I know, it’s just weird.” There’s so much left unsaid there, and Ben wiggles his hand free to drop an arm around her shoulders.

“I know.”

She smiles weakly but knows there’s no way he could _really_ know how jarring it is to go from a nobody to an almost somebody.

“This way,” Ben says, steering her into a small building. More of a hole in the wall place than what she expected from him. 

It smells amazing, and Rey feels herself relax as they step inside. It’s done up in deep blues and earthen tones. Ben takes the lead, walking towards a booth in the back corner.

“I was wondering when you two would show up,” says a soft voice. Rey turns from sliding into her seat to find a tall, slender woman, dressed in head-to-toe lavender, smiling at the both.

“We’ve been busy,” Ben grouses, but Rey can feel the happiness radiating from him.

The woman hums, a soft smile curling her lips. “Yes, I can see that you both have _very_ satisfied auras.” Rey’s mouth falls open in shock and Ben groans. “Sit, sit,” she waves her hands at them both and Rey plonks down in her seat, still staring open-mouthed at the woman. “Now, I think some tea to start, yes? And then I have a wonderful chilled basil avocado soup that I think you’ll absolutely love, Rey. And of course, Ben, your usual.”

“What’s your usual?” Rey asks, leaning closer to him.

“A grilled cheese on a pretzel roll, sometimes tomato soup, sometimes whatever soup I give him,” the woman gives Rey a quick wink and carries on, “I’ve made a salted caramel pie today.”

Rey is already starving, so it all sounds incredible and is more than ready to ask for dessert first — she can come back and try soups later.

“That sounds lovely, Aunt Amilyn,” Ben says, relaxing into his seat and the woman — _Amilyn_ — nods.

“I’ll be back with your tea, and then we can do readings!” she calls excitedly over her shoulder, making Ben groan.

“Your aunt?” Rey asks, brow arched in question.

“Not by blood– well,” he frowns a bit here, “actually, she and my mother might have done a familial blood bond when they were younger. So maybe.”

“What is — you know what, I’m gonna worry about that later.” Rey decides and Ben snorts. 

“She’s my aunt,” Ben continues. “My mom has a twin brother, my Uncle Luke, and then my dad, Han, is an only child. They’re both over in Europe right now, crisis at Hogwarts, you know how it goes.”

“Ben!”

“I’m kidding!” he laughs, “they _are_ over there though, tracking down some artifact or another that was listed on the black market and shouldn’t be in mundane hands. I’m sure my mother has already called them home, so get ready for that. They’ll like you, I promise.”

“It’s true, they will,” Amilyn announces, appearing suddenly with a tray containing a tea set. “Here,” she says, placing a cup before each of them and gesturing at each container in turn, “Earl Grey, Jasmine, Green Tea, Chamomile, and my house blend. I’ll be back with your food in a bit, and then the fun can start.”

“What do I do?” Rey hisses as soon as she disappears into the kitchen once more.

“You’ve never? Okay, well, first, pick your tea, we’re gonna drink. While you’re doing that, focus on a question you want the answer to. Specificity is key, but if you only want a general answer, keep it _loose_.”

Rey glares at him for his blatant pun, and he winks at her before she finally says “Okay.” Rey reaches for the Earl Grey. She’s no stranger to brewing her own cup, but she’s never met someone capable and gifted in the art of reading tea leaves. Ben pours the hot water into both of their cups and Rey watches the dried leaves unfurl as they steep. They drink in comfortable silence, and Amilyn appears almost the instant they finish.

“Ben, show her what to do,” she urges, sliding into the booth next to Rey. Rey watches Ben as he carefully swirls the contents of his cup and then tips it upside down onto his saucer. She repeats what he does, and then Amilyn waves at her. “Now pick it up, and hand it here.”

“Do you want to know my question?” Rey asks.

“Oh, honey, no, the leaves will tell me what I need to know.” The longer she stares, turning the cup this way and that, the more nervous Rey becomes. Has she somehow done it wrong? Is it terrible news? Then she waves a hand at Ben without looking up and he hands the cup over quickly. Minutes pass in silence before she finally sets both cups back down on the tray and folds her hands together looking serene. 

“I didn’t _need_ to read the leaves to see this much.” She reaches out, one hand taking Rey’s while the other reaches across the table for Ben’s. “It’s telling that you’ve both asked similar questions, if not the same, but you both can rest easy. You’re in for long lives full of love and happiness. Together.” She squeezes Rey’s hand, and Rey imagines she does the same to Ben. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be right back with your food.”

Back at their apartment, they weave around boxes and enter the bedroom. Rey feels jittery and far from the sort of sated she should be feeling after a good meal. She doesn’t want to blame it on the knowledge gleaned from the reading but doesn’t know what else it could be. It’s stupid, really — they’re already bound.

“Come here,” Ben tells her gently, pulling her towards his ensuite. It’s ridiculous, beautiful, just like the rest of the place, and large enough to house a claw foot tub _and_ a shower. She watches him as he strips, placing all of his clothes on a neat pile on the toilet lid, then steps into the shower. She watches him through the floor-to-ceiling pane of glass as he turns it on and water begins to fall from the ceiling, then he steps out of the spray. “Get undressed,” he tells her, and she complies quickly. He pulls her into the vast stall and sits down on the bench that runs along the one wall. She could laugh over the fact that they’re in the shower, but well out of the way of the spray. Ben watches her fidget before him for a moment and then he pulls her onto his lap.

“You could leave, you know,” he informs her, voice gentle. “I wouldn’t hold it against you. Train to your heart’s content and then choose to live wherever you want.”

“Do you not want me here?” she asks, voice sharp, and Ben wraps his damp arms around her.

“I do, more than anything, but if it isn’t what you want…”

“You’re an idiot,” she informs him, reaching for his face, tilting it up to force him to look her in the eye. “I want to know you, Ben Solo. All of you, the parts you try to hide away, the parts that scare you, who you are when you think no one is looking. I want to know what the name Kylo Ren means to _you_ , and not what others think of it. You’re bound to me, and I to you, and I don’t know why it happened, but I’m glad it did.” She leans forward, presses her forehead to his, lets her arms circle his neck. 

“I am too.” 

Rey kisses him, and his hands circle her waist, thumbs rubbing at her skin, artfully avoiding her Rune. When she feels it, she gasps, surprised to also feel tears slipping down her cheeks.

“You make me weak,” he confesses quietly, “in the best way that I’m going to butcher explaining.” Rey smothers a laugh against his skin. “All I’ve known is strength and destruction and power and then I met you and I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone quite like you, Rey, so full of life and lacking in fear around me. You make me — I’ve never — I love you, but you already knew that.”

She nods with a quiet laugh, having felt it through their bond moments before he tried to confess. “I did,” she tells him, “but it’s okay. I love you too.” Her fingers play with the ends of his hair as she observes him, listening to the water fall on the shower floor behind her. “I knew, almost from the moment you walked into my shop, that you were going to change my life, and then when you pulled that rune.” She bites her lip, “You were so flustered.”

“Wholly out of character,” he defends, shifting her on his lap.

Rey hums. “I’m sure.”

“Look, it’s not every day a beautiful woman is speculating over my potency.” Rey snorts at this and then lets out an ‘ _eep_ ’ as he stands with her. He walks forward, passing through the spray and making her sputter, then he has her pressed against the far wall, his hardness trapped between them. She huffs as he pushes her wet hair away from her face where it had fallen and then leans in to kiss her.

She shifts against him, legs inching higher on his hips until she can securely wrap around him, ankles hooked together over his lower back. Ben’s fingertips press hard into the skin of her thighs as each movement has her rocking over him as they kiss.

“You’ve proved you’re very much up to the task,” Rey finally says when he pulls away from her.

“You’re never gonna let that one go, are you?” he asks with a blush.

“Not on your life,” she hums, nails scratching over his rune, making him shudder, “Now please.” She arches against him, trying to get him where she needs him, then he’s moving with her and they both moan in tandem as he slips inside of her entrance.

His movements are slow and gentle, forehead pressed to hers as he rolls his hips into her. “Ben,” she whispers, just barely able to be heard over the water. He kisses her again, mouth moving hungrily against hers, a sharp contrast to the way he’s moving. His thumb moves over her rune and she brushes against his in retaliation. With a low growl, he pulls out of her and places her on her feet before turning her, pressing her chest up against the cool tile. He’s still taking his time when he presses back in, slow steady strokes that are driving Rey crazy. Her orgasm slams into her without preamble and she shouts his name, whimpering when his grip tightens on her hips, when he accidentally brushes against her rune, making her come once more, a small, leg-quivering thing as he finds his own release.

Ben’s head drops down to rest between her shoulder blades; she can feel the hot puffs of breath against her dewy skin and sighs. “You’re magnificent,” he rasps, making her roll her eyes, but smile anyway, stretching when he finally pulls away from her.

She turns and presses him under the spray.

Later they lay in bed, lights dimmed, blankets pulled up to their chins. Her head rests on his arm and her left leg is flung over his body. There’s music playing softly somewhere in the house, she’s positive it’s magical as she hasn’t found any speakers anywhere yet, and she’s too stubborn to ask. Ben’s fingers play with the damp ends of her hair while her own hands busy themselves tracing patterns over his chest. Rey feels like she could purr, she feels so content. She’s fighting sleep and she knows it, eyes slowly drifting closed only to open again quickly moments later.

Ben’s voice drags her back from the brink of sleep. “I love you.”

“Love you too,” she mumbles, eyes closing once more. “‘M really glad you didn’t arrest me.”

She hears him laugh, feels him gently kiss her forehead and she snuggles into his warmth. It takes her a moment, overwhelmed with Ben’s feelings, but when she gets it she sighs happily. She’s home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again everyone!
> 
> Now that it's the end I can discuss chapter titles! Each chapter is named after a rune in elder futhark and I'll list them and the meaning I cherrypicked below.   
> Raido - journey/relocation  
> Wunjo - joy/fellowship/ecstasy  
> Naudiz - Need  
> Algiz - protection  
> Ehwaz - trust/companionship


End file.
